Dreams

Deja Vu- Natalia Boa Vista

The past few days had been bananas for Horatio Caine and his CSI Miami team. Every piece of evidence they found led them to more evidence, more suspects and more motives but not the criminal mastermind. Whoever was behind it all stayed more than two steps ahead of the team. It had been over seventy-two hours since Natalia seen her apartment. She was so full of coffee and sodas that if she had cut herself she might have bled caffeine instead of blood. She had eaten more fast food in the last four days then she'd probably had last month. Her body ached in places she didn't realize she had. What she wouldn't give to go home and crash for about at least twenty-four hours. No telephone, no TV, no computer. Nothing but her eyelids closed to the world.

She was waiting for yet another test to produce results. Since she would have about an hour, she laid her head inside her arms on an empty desk in the lab. If she could just close her eyes for an hour maybe, she could see something she didn't see before. The bombs, the murders, the assaults and the press were enough to drive anyone crazy. They were all trying to hold on to their sanity. She'd had to make an emergency run for batteries for her hearing aids. She never had to go longer than twenty-four hours before being able to charge them. Not so lucky this time.

The beeping sounds of the machine and the printing of test results brought her out of her slumber. She stretched and grabbed the results from the printer. She took one glance at the results and took off to find Horatio. She had possibly found the killer's identity. As she ran down the hall, she bumped into Calleigh who was coming up from ballistics. She had proof of a second suspect. When they reached Horatio's office Walter was there with evidence of the third suspect and an address. Everyone went into action.

Natalia was cataloging the last of the evidence when Horatio came in the lab to send her home.

"But these still need testing."

"Don't worry about it. The swing will take care of it. I'm sending you all home. You've done more than excellent."

"And you're going home too, yes?"

"Yes; we all have strict orders to not show up here for three days."

"I don't know if three days will cover how tired I am."

"I know. That's why we have the weekend off too." She smiled.

"Thanks H." He smiled, put his hands in his pockets, and walked out of the room. Natalia grabbed one last cup of coffee, just so she could drive home. She was swearing off the stuff for the next three days. She drove home with the music blaring to keep awake. Once home she parked her car and was barely able to walk. She'd had her heels on for much longer than she expected. She unlocked her door and stepped in. After closing and locking her door behind her, Natalia finally let out a sigh of relief. The familiar scent of roses filled her nostrils. It had been over three days since she had been home, but she didn't remember using rose-scented room fresheners or buying fresh flowers. Which would have been dead by now from neglect. She glanced around and then something on the floor caught her eyes. Rose petals. They were making a trail that led from the front door to the hallway and she assumed without looking that they reached her bedroom.

"Who would leave a trail of rose petals?" she said to herself. Airing on the side of caution, she pulled her gun from her holster and slowly and quietly followed the trail. As she walked she could hear a man...singing in her bedroom. Natalia slowly walked down the hall, adrenaline kicking in where fatigue had set in. Gun drawn, she pushed the door open to see a tall, bald-headed, muscular brown-skinned African-American man dancing around with his iPod in his ears.

"Freeze!!" She yelled. The man turned around, hands raised in surrender. Then she saw his dimples. "Sam?"

"Hey baby you're finally home." He said as he pulled his ear buds from his ears.