A/N: I do not own CSI Miami or any of it's characters, affiliates...etc. This is just my imagination running with it! I hope you all enjoy!

Chapter Six

Glad I Finally Did

Staring at the kid, she could almost see the family resemblance. Taking a breath, careful to hold the shakiness back, she talked. "Casey? It's Natalia again. You need to hang in there. There's something I've been kind of keeping from you, but you should know." and she took a deep breath, watching as the monitors remained exactly as they were. "You're actually my second cousin. By blood. Your mom was my Uncle's daughter. But I never knew her because we never got together."

There was nothing in a reaction. Part of her wondered if she was actually hearing her or if what everyone said about people being in the hospital hearing you, was bull.

"You're still freezing Casey. You need to warm up and stick around. I'm sorry about what happened to your family and why, but please don't give up. Don't listen to your mother. She didn't know what she was talking about. You have so much to live for."

Looking out at the man standing just beyond the window, she placed the girls hand back down on the mattress and stepped out for a second. Taking a deep breath, she turned, looking at her laying there. "I want her with me when this is all done."

There it was. A part of him smiled about it. Keeping it back, he nodded his head.

"I also want first crack at her mother."

"Natalia, you can't."

"That's bull crap." she seethed angrily. Then she turned to him, folding her arms across her chest. "I'm out of the game. Because she's my family."

Nodding again, he looked at the kid in the bed. "Try to get some rest Natalia. You're going to need it. She's got a long fight."

She nodded and felt his hand on her shoulder. "I know she does. And I'm not going to leave her side this time."

He considered her words. "Don't blame yourself."

She took a deep breath and said nothing as she walked back into the room sitting down beside the hospital bed. Watching her now, he could see the guilt surrounding her entire demeanor. Come on kid. If you don't make it, I don't know what it's going to do to her.

Strolling out of the hospital and into the streets, he took a wild guess and started patrolling the streets around the graveyard. Chances were good that she got the alcohol locally and probably walked there. So he started close. Walking into the first liquor store he was met with apprehension. Stepping up to the counter and flashing his badge attached to his hip, he studied the man. "Have you sold any of these jars tonight?"

Nodding swiftly, he answered hesitating. "Two. One to a bunch of college kids around seven and one a few minutes ago to an old couple."

"The college kids, did you card them?"

"It was just one, but yes of course. He was twenty two. Said he had a few buddies in the car, they were going to a frat party."

"Did you get him on camera?" he glanced at the security set up.

Shaking his head he admitted softly, "It doesn't record. It just shows me live feed here on my screen so I can watch when someone comes in and where they are."

Nodding a bit in disappointment, he said thanks.

"Wait a minute." he said gently. "I do have a camera out in the parking lot. And it does record. If he was in the back part of the lot, he could have been caught back there. I keep it on in case someone tries to break in the back door." and he spun, bringing up the feed on his television. Rewinding back to as close to time as he could remember selling the alcohol, he found where the guy had gotten out of his vehicle and rewound the tape to right before it pulled up.

Getting a sick feeling, he watched as a small figure entered the screen just after the sports car showed up. Unable to see his face from the hat and no real distinguishing marks on his car, he saw Casey give him a fifty dollar bill, him disappear, come back into view with a brown paper sack and give her the jar.

"I swear I didn't know he was going to give it to someone underaged."

Shaking his head dismissively he nodded. "I know. She's smart." and he kept watching as he backed his car out, said something out the window to her and saw her climb in the back of his Mustang. That was how she'd gotten there. She'd still had to have been walking the whole time to get there. They were almost fifteen miles from the house and no one had seen Casey since they'd gotten home from the funeral. There were a lot of things that had gone wrong.

They should have stayed instead of going back to the lab. Edith should have checked on her way before she had. He should have known she would go to her parent's plots. He remembered spending a lot of time at his mom's after she died. Thanking the store owner, he walked out and looked around him.

Surveying the area and remembering from which angle the kid had appeared in the camera, he walked across the street to the bar that was sort of in the same direction. She had said she'd talked to her biological mother. It was a good bet it was somewhere close they'd had their conversation. Walking in he looked at the bar tender. It was too crowded to waste time looking for the woman. He hid his badge and gun for the moment. "I'm looking for Deborah Hammond."

"Hey Deb!" he screamed across the establishment. Focusing his attention back to the red head in front of him, he smiled. "She's been busy tonight. Lots of customers."

Not saying a word, he turned toward the woman as she made her way toward them.

Letting out a heavy sigh, her shoulders sank. "What do you want, cop? I already told you everything I had to say about the Colter's."

"Why don't we step outside for a minute."

"You and my daughter. Who else is going to take me away from this place tonight?"

She was clearly high and not thinking clearly at all. Which admittedly made it all the more easy for him to question her. "It's funny you should mention your daughter. When did she stop by?"

She shrugged. "Just before dark. Six thirty maybe? Why?"

"Did you guys have a fight?"

Laughing, she kept a smile on her face as she answered. "You could say that. I slapped her when she called me a name, and then we went our separate ways."

"She says you admitted to her that you killed the Colter's for her." and he watched all the color drain from her face.

"She's lying."

"She says that you told her all she had to do was talk to you and she could have prevented it."

"She called me an egg donor. She said that I wasn't her mom. She said that I was jealous because she found love. Can you imagine?"

"She was removed from your custody when she was two because of abuse and neglect."

"That was a misunderstanding."

"From the pictures in her file, it wasn't much of one."

"What do you know anyway?"

"Here's what I think. I think Casey told me the truth about you admitting to doing it. And I think she was right. You were jealous of her parents and not being a part of it."

"She told you an awful lot." she spouted sardonically. "Where is she now? You can ask her again what was said."

"That's going to be a problem. Apparently during part of this fight, you told her to kill herself and then to die."

"I...I was just...mad. I didn't mean it."

"Too bad she didn't know that."

"What do you mean?"

Glad he had called for back-up and they were pulling in, he nodded to the officer behind her. "Deborah Hammond, you're under arrest. You have the right to remain silent..." and he read her Miranda Rights while the officer cuffed her.

Hoping he didn't regret it, he sent a text to Natalia, letting her know that Deborah had been arrested and was at the police station. Walking into the interrogation room, he sat down and slid a folder across the table.

"We've got you at the scene, we've got you admitting to your daughter to doing it, all we need is the murder weapon."

"Well, if my daughter's dead, the you've got nothing. You just said all you have is proof that I was there. No murder weapon, and the word of a dead girl."

Stepping back to study the woman, he nodded lightly. Glancing up, he saw Natalia standing in the hallway. He looked at the woman and backed out of the way, unplugging the camera on the wall. "I'll be right back." and he stepped out of the room.

Looking at his subordinate, he breathed out, folding his hands in front of him. "You know, that I can't let you in there. You can only observe." and he saw her eyes fall to the floor before he continued. "In an official capacity." Then he stepped closer. "Off the record though...I'm going to give her a few moments of free time, to think on things." and he shrugged. "What happens in that time isn't recorded." and he walked away.

Stepping into the room, looking at the woman with distaste, she shook her head.

"Who the hell are you!?" she asked irritated.

"Your worst nightmare." Natalia spit back.

The woman shrank back for a moment, seeing the ire in her eyes. "What...what do you want?" she asked shakily this time.

"It would seem that you like to throw words out at people, without worrying about any ramifications that might come from it."

She huffed out. "You must be talking about Casey."

"You would know."

"She's family. You wouldn't understand."

"You know...family is a funny thing. Did you know I had an uncle once?"

"Why would I know anything about your family?" she asked indignantly.

"Because my uncle, was your father." and she watched as realization hit. Keeping her cool until that point, she watched as the woman simply shrugged it off.

Reaching across the table and grabbing the woman by the collar of her shirt, she pulled her across and on top of the interrogation table in there and got right in her face. "You're nothing. And I hope your daughter lives, just to watch you die."

"You have no clue what I'm capable of."

"You don't know what I'm capable of either." she said, menace lacing her voice. "I hope you get the death penalty." and she let go of her shirt.

That seemed to have shaken the woman even more than she had been before. "Death...death penalty?"

"Oh yeah. Two counts of pre-meditated murder and one count of right now attempted murder."

"If Casey's not dead then..."

"It's attempted murder. I pray for her sake that it remains attempted."

"I didn't touch her."

"No. You made her..." and she stopped as her superior stepped into her view. Straightening herself, she looked at the woman and shook her head, before walking out.

He could see her visibly shaken from the encounter. Putting both hands on her shoulders, he nodded lightly, squeezing almost lovingly. "Go take care of her. I've got this." and he took in her expression.

Taking the girls hand back in her own, Natalia sat beside the bed in the chair in the room. She'd come back from where she'd been shaking before and had calmed considerably.

"Hey Casey. I'm back. In case you didn't know I had left. I told you earlier, but I'm not sure if you heard me or not. Turns out someone was at the police station and I needed to interrogate them. But all worked out okay. I've got it situated. And it may not seem like this now, but you're safe. Horatio and I...we got them. We got the bad guy."

Unconscious of how she did it, she heard the woman, and squeezed her hand.

"Casey?"

She squeezed again.

"That's it sweetie. Can you open your eyes for me?"

There was another tiny squeeze.

Natalia noticed her eyes were moving beneath her lids. "That's it Casey. Come on."

After a couple of more minutes of coaxing, her eyes did barely open. There was recognition and almost instant tears that sprang to her eyes.

"Hey there. Welcome back."

She closed her eyes and opened them again when she realized she wasn't breathing on her own. She squeezed her eyes shut for a second.

"Easy Casey. They have you on warm oxygen. You were having trouble breathing. I'll get someone in here to get the tube out, okay?"

Her eyes screamed in fear. The one time she wanted to talk to this woman, and she couldn't.

She noticed the tears dripping down her face and she reached up and wiped them gently. "It's alright Casey. You're okay. I'm here. I won't let anything happen to you."

Nodding softly, she leaned back and closed her eyes, still not letting go of the brunettes hand in hers. It was about ten minutes later when the nurse had removed the breather and she was able to breath with a little help from a nasal cannula.

Opening her eyes again, she opened her mouth to speak.

"Don't try to talk sweetie."

"My...my mom..." she mouthed.

"Your mom is in custody."

"Really?" she asked, still not speaking.

She nodded. "I'm waiting on Horatio to text me at any moment and tell me that she's been put through the system for her arrest."

There was a small knock on the door and the redhead stepped in. Natalia smiled sweetly. "Speak of the devil."

He stepped closer to the side of the bed. "Hi sweetheart."

She smiled back and leaned her head back on the pillow.

"She's not able to talk and the doctor said she's going to be pretty weak for the next few days, but she's hanging in there."

"I see that." he said softly. "So, talking about me were you?" and he winked at the kid in the bed.

"She asked about her mom. I told her I was waiting to hear from you about her arrest."

"Indeed. We got a confession. You wont even need to testify." and he watched as it was if a thousand pounds was lifted off the girl in that one instant. "It's alright sweetheart. You're safe now. The worst is over. The only way to go from here is up. Okay?"

Nodding softly, she mouthed the words "Thank you" and squeezed Natalia's hand once more before falling asleep.

It was almost six weeks later when she was looking around at her new arrangement. Natalia had stuck true to her word and had moved the girl in with her and she honestly couldn't have been happier to know she had real family. And they all loved her.

She smiled as she grabbed a glass of iced tea and sat down on the balcony of Natalia's back porch. "How was school today?"

She smiled at her second cousin and nodded. "It was good. I think I have a date."

"Really?" she said smiling. "With who?"

"Would you believe me if I told you it was the guy I beat up?"

"Seriously?"

Smiling, she nodded. "I'm kind of scared. I've never really been on a date before."

"Never?"

She shrugged. "There was one time, but he was more of a friend than someone interested in me."

"Well, that's it. We're going shopping."

"What?"

"Oh yeah. We're going shopping. When is your date?"

"Um...Fri...Friday? I think?"

"You think?"

"Well we haven't solidified anything yet so..."

"Oh, yeah. We're going shopping tomorrow as soon as I get off work."

Casey giggled.

"It's really nice to hear your voice."

Her expression sobered as she looked up at her. "Really?"

She nodded. "For a long time there, I wondered if I ever would. I'm glad I finally did."

Smiling, she nodded and took a drink of her tea. "I am too."