A/N: I've read CSI:Miami fanfic for months, but this is my first actual oneshot for it. Implied R/N feelings, though no established relationship. This is also part 4 of 15 of the Quinceanera series, a birthday gift for my friend Iwait4theRain. Please R&R, and let me know how I did.

Natalia Boa Vista laughed and made a face at her partner. "Remind me never to trust you with a vending machine."

She stood by the door of the locker room as Ryan struggled to contain the multiple coins shooting out of said vending machine. She'd been waiting for him, since he was taking her home today, and then, of course, this happened. Figures that the guy with everything in order would be disheveled on a day like today.

"You could help me, Natalia," he groaned as he flailed, struggling to maintain control over the cash flow.

Natalia studied his face for a few seconds, then slowly walked over to the vending machine.

"I might help you," she said slowly, "if…"

"If what?" he asked. "I'll do anything, come on, Natalia!"

"We order from Beijing Garden," she said.

"I'd be fine with that," he smiled.

"Really?" she said, surprised. "Thought you hated that place."

"I don't hate it," he scoffed, "I just don't happen to be addicted to it. But if it means we can get out of here, then yes, we can order from Beijing Garden."

Natalia laughed, a deep, throaty chuckle. She took one of the quarters and calmly slid it into the vending machine.

"Total count: twenty-five cents," said a mechanical voice. The coin flow out of the machine immediately slowed to a standstill.

what…"

"Old trick my dad taught me," she said with a little grin. "You'd better be ready to go soon, or I will shoot you and hog all the Chinese food to myself."

To anyone else, this conversation would have been completely normal, and nothing could have been wrong. To Natalia's perceptive, caring eye, however, Ryan had stiffened ever so slightly when the word "shoot" had come out of her mouth. He wasn't telling the whole truth about what had happened in the warehouse; she knew it. Damn it.

"Earth to Natalia!" Ryan snapped his fingers in front of her face. "You okay?"

She blinked rapidly. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine," she said quickly. "I'll be out front."

"Okay," he said warily. As she walked away, he wondered just how transparent he had been. Horatio had said to make sure Talia didn't know that she had fired off those shots. They were too close, dangerously close, but at the time he hadn't given a damn about his safety; all that mattered was that she relax in his arms and forget about the drug-induced hallucination. Protocol be damned, even if he'd been shot, as long as she turned out okay, it wouldn't really have mattered. This was Natalia, who meant more to him than any woman he'd ever met.

The car ride was… well. Ryan placed an order en route for Beijing Garden takeout, making sure to get Natalia's favorite dish. Other than that, the trip was pretty much silent, and slightly uncomfortable, too, seeing as Ryan did not, under any circumstances, want to get into the conversation that was bound to take place once they reached her house. It was never a good idea to tell your partner that she had fired off shots at you after being involuntary drugged by a greedy psychic. Natalia had managed to suck at shooting when she first started work at CSI, but now? Well, she was no Calleigh Duquesne (not that anyone was really in the mood for another Calleigh at the moment), but she was getting to be a damn good shot. Great when she had his back. Not so great when you were the target, and practice was about to start.

Meanwhile, to Natalia, Ryan's silence only confirmed her worst fears. She had shot at him. God, she'd shot at Ryan. H, too, but she knew she'd already been forgiven for that. She knew she could count on Ryan, but to what extent? Damn it, she could have killed him. Thank God he wasn't hurt, she thought to herself. I would never be able to forgive myself if I had. Even if it wasn't my fault.

As they pulled up to her modest house, she opened her mouth for the first time in forty five minutes. "How close?" her voice cracked.

He looked at her, confused. "What?"

Her fingers danced over his arm hesitantly as she stared down at her seat. In a low voice, she elaborated, "How close did I come to shooting you today?"

Ryan tried to mask the grimace on his face, but he knew Natalia would see right through said mask. "We agreed to tell the truth, right?" he asked.

She didn't respond but instead began to ruffle through her bag.

"Natalia?"

She still refused to look at him.

"Talia!" He wrapped his fingers gently around her wrist. "Look at me. Hey, come on, look at me."

She stared up at him, eyes watering.

"Why don't we wait to talk about this until you're settled," he said amicably.

"I'm fine, Ryan," she pleaded. Yes, Natalia Boa Vista was pleading with him. Not to go any further, not to delve into what had happened, maybe not to be as big a presence in her current life as he was being. He could either ignore it or confront it.

The logical choice was right in front of him, and Ryan was nothing if not rational.

"No, you're not," he said softly.

"Ryan…please, stop it," she said. "I don't need your help." I do want it.

He breathed. "Okay. I'll make sure the night shift watches over your car tonight."

She stared at him resignedly and took it as her cue to stand up. She got out of the car and, not being able to help it, began to storm towards her front door.

He shut the door behind him as he nearly fell out of his car trying to keep up with her. Miraculously, he made it to the doorstep two milliseconds before she did it.

She raised her eyebrows. "What the hell are you doing?" she asked.

"Oh, come on, Natalia," he scoffed, "you couldn't possibly cheat me out of Beijing Garden takeout." The look in his eyes, though, was far from playful; it was concerned, apprehensive, and the slightest bit hopeful.

She smiled, the first genuine one since before this insane case, and laughed out loud. "You are persuasive. I guess I could let you come in."

An hour later, the two were camped out on the couch, watching another repeat of an old Jeff Dunham special.

"I can't believe I agreed to watching this," Natalia giggled as she took another sip of her beer.

Ryan, for his part, was dumbfounded. Talia had giggled. "Well, you know," he said, regaining his composure, "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. My brother practically taped my eyelids open when this was on, and… it wasn't half bad, let's put it that way."

Things were comfortably silent for a moment, and then as Natalia leaned her head on his shoulder, another punch line came at them from a screen. Natalia could feel the reverberation of movement as Ryan quietly laughed. She soaked in the moment, knowing that she was going to be ruining it soon anyway.

"Are you gonna tell me what happened today?"

He looked at her and sighed. "Do you want me to?" he asked her. "Once I tell you, you can't take it back."

She quivered a little at this, and he pulled her just the tiniest bit closer. She breathed in deeply, in and out. "Okay. Tell me the whole story."

A pregnant pause filled the empty space. "About ten minutes after the psychic began your hypnosis, Horatio and I noticed that a loop of her voice was being played. We tried to get you to respond. You didn't. When we managed to trace you to the warehouse, we got inside and found you there." He took a deep breath. "To tell you the truth, Talia, I was scared as hell. Horatio and I stood on opposite sides of you, trying to calm you down. You… weren't you. You were scared as hell, legitimately frightened out of your wits. You started firing, closer and closer to us. I grabbed you around the waist and we fell to the ground. Horatio tried to get you to snap out of it, but you were so hyped up. You were crying, scared as hell, you had been drugged, and I couldn't do anything about it…"

Natalia sucked in a shallow breath. An uncharacteristic bugger of a tear slid down her cheek. "God, Ryan, I could have killed you."

"Frankly, I was more worried about the possibility of you hurting yourself," he whispered. "I didn't…couldn't…care about me, when it was your life on the line."

She allowed her head to lean fully against his chest now, and Ryan would be either an idiot, an ass, or blind to say that it didn't feel right. They sat like that for a minute, Jeff Dunham still cracking jokes against everybody on his program in the midst of the detectives' personal crisis.

"Does anyone know?" she asked in a small voice. God, of all the things she could have chosen to say to him, she picked that? Of all the things she wanted to say, but couldn't, she'd chosen the most selfish thing possible? Really, Natalia?

"Just you, me, and H," he murmured. "He didn't want you to know."

She chuckled throatily. "Why doesn't that surprise me? But then why did you tell me?"

He paused. "You deserve to know what happened," he said simply. "It's not like IAB is ever going to find out about this."

She nodded and, to his surprise, brushed her lips across his cheek. "Thank you," she said softly.

"For what? For making you feel bad?" he asked, utterly confused at what he could have done for her to warrant this.

"For nothing," she said. "And for everything."

As he looked down at her, he tilted his head to the side. "Do you get philosophical when you're drunk?"

"One day that saying will make sense to you, Ryan," she yawned as her eyelids fluttered shut. Someday soon, I hope.

Within a few minutes, both were out on the couch, the crude laughter of a Comedy Central audience fading quickly as he unconsciously wrapped an arm around her waist and she buried her face into his chest, each knowing, even in sleep, that their partner brought with them the best kind of comfort.

A/N: Come to the dark side and review - we have brownies!