Epilogue

7 years later…

"… of trouble, Mother Mary comes to me, speaking words of wisdom…"

Ryan Wolfe opened his eyes. The alarm clock showed him it was 7 a.m. Time to get up. But he allowed himself five minutes more cuddling into his pillow while listening to Ron's concert in the shower. How he had missed that! He had moved out of Ron's flat a year ago, when he finally had earned enough to afford his own little condo. Tonight, he had spent the night over at Ron's because he had redecorated the flat, and the smell of paint didn't let him sleep, so Ron had offered the guest bed to Ryan. As always, Ron had been there for him. He sighed, got up and got ready for breakfast.

--

Half an hour later, Ryan sat in his patrol car, waiting to throw himself into harm's way that day. But everything seemed quiet in those early morning hours, so he took his time, while sipping on his coffee, and thought about the last seven years. Seven years… Time had passed so fast. Seven years ago, Ryan had flown back to Miami with Ron, but only for a few more days. Then both had gone back to Boston. Ron had sublet his flat in Miami to some guy he knew, and had gotten himself a little apartment in Boston, where the two could live. Ron had wanted Ryan to complete his studies in Boston, where his friends were, where he knew the town and, Ron had to admit, where Ryan was safer than in Miami. The violence in Miami had started to increase more and more, and Ron was reluctant to let his nephew grow up there. They had lived in Boston until Ryan had finished not only high-school, but also gotten a degree in Chemistry at Boston College and finished Police Academy. Top of his class, of course. But then Ron had missed Miami too much, and had talked to Ryan about moving back. Ryan had thought about that too, and finally the two of them decided to get back to Miami. Ryan had immediately gotten a job. And there he was now: Officer Ryan Wolfe. And he loved it. Officer Channing had been right from the beginning. It was here where his help was needed. Not in Afghanistan. He had helped many people during the time he had that job. Well, he had done the first step. At some point, the CSI took over. In contrast to many other patrol men, Ryan didn't mind. He knew how important their work was; he had never forgotten the rape victim, he had never forgotten his sister… Deborah. He wondered where she was, and what she was doing. During the time in Boston, he had never tried to get in contact to her, or his mother. This chapter of his life was over. He hadn't gone to hospital that night seven years ago. Ron had pushed him to do, but Ryan had refused. He didn't want to bring more trouble on his family. He knew the hospital would report his father if they suspected abuse. But that was something he didn't want. It was over. What good was it to report the old man? It wouldn't give him any satisfaction. He had moved on. Sometimes though, when he was alone at home, he took his time and looked at himself in the mirror. More precisely, he checked his back in the mirror. Some of the wounds hadn't left a scar, but most of them had. Whenever Ryan looked at them, he was brutally reminded of where he came from. The first moment he flinched when he saw it, but then he knew it had been worth it. Suddenly, the radio creaked. Accident at the local shopping centre. Ryan was the unit closest to the shopping centre, so he started the car and drove over.

--

When he got there, a large number of people had already gathered around the scene. Ryan took a look at the victim, from a few feet away of course. No way he would go there and destroy possible evidence! He had often enough seen Horatio Caine, the supervisor of the Miami Dade Crime Lab dayshift, getting angry at other officers because they had destroyed a possible piece of evidence. And honestly, he could already see from his place that the victim was dead. A beautiful woman she'd been. He walked back to the car and made a dispatch that there was a dead body and they needed the CSI to come. Then he looked around the scene. He immediately noticed something important: Apparently, the accident had happened at the only place in Miami that wasn't full of surveillance cameras. Just great. He walked around the scene, but no result: No cameras, no ATMs, nothing. A whole lot of nothing. Ryan looked at the body and tried to think, when suddenly he heard people talking in a foreign language. He guessed it was German. Tourists. Well, this was a nice motive for a souvenir picture: Smashed body with blood all around. Souvenir picture… Ryan grinned. Of course. How could he not have thought of that?

He addressed one of the tourists, "Sir, Ma'am, I'm Officer Ryan Wolfe. You might have taped something important on your camera. Would you mind giving me your name and hotel, so we can come back to you if we need any clues?" They didn't.

--

The CSIs and the ME had arrived quickly. Ryan knew Horatio Caine. Everybody in this city knew Horatio Caine. Ryan looked at his list; he had the names of about ten people that had turned their cameras on or that had taken pictures just seconds before the victim had been hit by the bus. He didn't know if they had taped anything important. If there had happened anything important at all. Maybe she had just tripped, on those ridiculously high heels. He didn't know, but the CSIs would find out. He walked over to Horatio Caine, introduced himself and told him that there weren't any surveillance cameras around the scene but that he had taken the names of the tourists and then gave him the list. Then he walked away again, but seconds later, a young Latino guy laid a hand on his shoulder.

"Hey, Wolfe?"

"Yes?"

"I'm Eric Delko. Horatio Caine would like to see you at the Headquarters later."

"Yeah, okay… I'll be there…." Delko nodded and left. Ryan watched him walking away and smiled. The supervisor of the MDPD CSI dayshift wanted to see him. Him. He got back to his patrol car and took a deep breath. This was the opportunity. And he would take it. It was the moment he had waited for the past seven years. And he would not screw it up. Never…

--

Okay, my dear readers, this was the story. I hope you liked it. I want to thank each one of you for having read, reviewed, added the story to favorites and alerts lists, added me to the favorites and alerts list, etc. It means the world to me. I also want to apologize if there were a lot of mistakes in the story, like typing, grammar and stuff. I always try to correct them as good as I can. Thank you very much.