This story is the prequel to the story 'Over His Dead Body.'It leads up the birth of Horatio's daughter, Rachel Lynn Roslind Caine.

Chapter One: Aimee

Horatio Caine couldn't remember the last time he felt so happy. His relationship with Aimee Michaels had become very serious, very quickly. Aimee was 26, Horatio was 41. Horatio had asked Aimee to move in with him only seven months after they met. She was happy to do so. Despite the fifteen year age difference the couple many plans for the future. Aimee told Horatio very early in their relationship that she wanted to someday have children. Horatio had wanted to be a father as long as he could remember.

The lieutenant had proposed marriage to his girlfriend on their one-year anniversary. Exactly one month later Aimee found out she was pregnant. Aimee's birth parents hadn't approved of her relationship with Horatio. But she had her older brother's support. He had found the 'age thing' to be 'weird' but he couldn't deny Aimee was happy, that Horatio was a "good man" and treated Aimee like "royalty." Aimee was much closer to the paternal aunt and uncle who had adopted her and her brother years ago. They, like her older brother, were surprised that Aimee was in love with a man 15 years her senior but they couldn't deny he was a 'good man.'