Title: Only Love

Pairing: Horatio/OFC

Rating: NC-17 (for later chapters, but rating exists throughout to be safe)

Spoilers: Story takes place after the season 3 finale. Any and all spoilers from the first three seasons are always possible. Season 4 and onward will not be present as my story takes place beforehand.

Summary: Still recoiling from Calleigh's resignation and Yelina's reunion with Raymond, Horatio Caine certainly wasn't looking for love. But sometimes love has a way of finding us when we least expect it. Horatio/OFC
Disclaimers: All characters from CSI-Miami are property of CBS. I do not profit from my pitiful fan fictions, I simply enjoy writing them in the hopes that you will like them too! Any and all feedback will be greatly appreciated! Special thanks to my Beta reader Nic! You're wonderful!

Chapter 1

The sweltering Miami sun was just beginning to dip below the horizon as Horatio Caine drove home from the Miami-Dade Crime Lab. Horatio and his team had been pulling double shifts for the better part of a week, and now that the high profile case was finally solved, Horatio found himself looking forward to a hot shower.

The shrill ring of Horatio's cell phone suddenly interrupted his musings. Sighing briefly, Horatio flipped open his phone. "Caine." He frowned as a rather frantic police officer immediately began some hyper speed story; Horatio had trouble understanding due to the astounding rate at which the officer was speaking. Somewhere in the midst of the ramble he picked out the words "crash", "dead", and "woman."

The officer had Horatio's attention now. "Officer Bradley…" The man continued frantically speaking after Horatio's prompt. "Officer Bradley!" Horatio yelled more forcefully on the second attempt. Luckily the Officer's ramblings promptly ceased. "Officer Bradley you need to slow down… did you call the paramedics? Good. Now where are you?" Mentally noting that the area Officer Bradley called out was less than 3 miles from where he was driving, Horatio flipped on his emergency lights and sped towards the scene. "I'm on my way."

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Horatio arrived at the grizzly scene just a few minutes later. A single car sat in the center of the road, its windshield and roof destroyed. Other than the car itself and the tread marks it had left behind, it didn't appear as though anything else in the area had been damaged. Unsure exactly what to make of the wreckage, Horatio strode purposely towards the scene. Removing his sunglasses, Horatio placed his hands on his hips and took a closer look. Officer Bradley stood a few paces behind the car looking like he was trying very hard not to lose his lunch. His eyes kept flickering back and forth between the woman in the car, Horatio, and any other random spot he could focus his attention on. Horatio knew it was the young officer's second week on the job, but a fresh crime scene was hardly the place to comfort a rookie cop. Hearing sirens in the far distance, Horatio turned his attention back to the car.

The maroon Ford Escort stood alone in the middle of a quiet stretch of road. What appeared to be the remains of a large 50-pound sandbag had smashed through the windshield and partially collapsed the roof of the car on impact. But how? Horatio thought. Glancing up, he noticed a bridge overlapping the road, orange flags and construction cones clearly visible atop the bridge. Horatio put the remaining pieces of the puzzle together.

"A sandbag must have fallen from that overhead bridge and landed on this poor woman's car." Horatio squatted down and looked inside the crushed car. "The question is… was it an accident?" Horatio's expression was somber as he took in the young woman's body. She didn't appear to be more than 25 or 30 and Horatio noted sadly that she was exceptionally beautiful. Her skin was pale and her long hair was a deep fiery red. Eyes closed, her body was propped forward on the steering wheel overtop the now deflated airbag. Her hair and face were streaked liberally with blood from the head wounds she had sustained during the crash. Other than the amount of blood, her body appeared relatively undamaged.

Frowning, Horatio noticed something that made his own blood run cold. Her wounds were still bleeding. And corpses didn't bleed. The sound of approaching sirens had Horatio muttering a silent thank you.

He yelled to the young officer. "Get the paramedics over here NOW! This woman is alive!" Officer Bradley's face drained of all color as he sped off waving his arms frantically at the approaching ambulance. Horatio did not hesitate to wrench open the door to get at the injured woman. He dropped down to his knees and leaned in closer. The crime scene was second to saving the woman inside the car.

"Ma'am? Ma'am can you hear me?" Horatio watched the woman intently, touching her shoulder while taking in her shallow but steady breathing. Her eyes fluttered slowly open, deep green meeting his ocean blue. She moaned softly, swallowing as if she was attempting to speak. "Shh it's ok. It's ok." Horatio whispered softly. "You're going to be all right. Just hang on Ma'am."

To Horatio's astonishment the woman smiled and whispered barely loud enough for him to hear. "Don't call me Ma'am." She rasped, coughing slightly. "It makes me feel old."

Horatio didn't have time to react to the young woman's attempt at humor before the paramedics shoved him aside and began giving aid to the young woman.

This story WILL be updated weekly at the very least, often times you will see multiple chapters in one week. You can plan on regular updates if you stick with this story… and I hope you will! I've got a lot in store for our Horatio and his female companion!