CSI Verse Fic

It wasn't a pretty sight, that was for sure. Horatio shifted his weight to his other foot, surveying the scene. He'd seen crime scenes like this before, nothing really new about it. Neighbors hear gunshots, family found dead in their living room, possibly a robbery gone bad. The wife had bled out the most for some reason.
But Horatio wasn't looking at the blood or the crime scene at all really. He wasn't frowning but to anyone looking at him, you could tell he wasn't pleased at all. It was the new intern that had been assigned to his group today. Their grades had been good, very good in fact. And an impressive resume. But as H watched, it was becoming apparent they had absolutely no field experience.
This started when they'd entered the room. While H surveyed the scene, the intern Chris had been trying not to lose his lunch. Horatio had had to remind him about gloving up after that and now Chris was fumbling around with an evidence bag nervously.
It was all Horatio could do to keep from sighing out loud. Nope, this one was not going to make it long with his department if he had anything to say about it.
There was a slight noise near his elbow as a girl was offering him coffee from a cardboard holder in her hands. "They said cream, no sugar, hope that's alright," she said with a bit of a smile. Though her eyes were traveling more to the scene in front of them than on Horatio. He accepted the coffee gratefully, maybe it would make the day a bit better.....probably not, but it was something. Sipping it, he studied the coffee girl. She was transfixed by the crime scene, staring at it, but not like most people do. This wasn't a look of disgust or being nauseous like poor Chris had been earlier. No, this looked more like she was thinking...like there was something going on in that head of hers as her eyes flicked around. Horatio suddenly wanted to know. "What do you see?"
Her reverie broken, she looked up at him, a bit confused by the sudden question out of the blue. "Oh....I was just...wondering if the girl was alright."
Now it was H's turn to be confused. "Girl? What girl do you mean?"
"....the one who was visiting here." Her voice trailed off, everyone was looking their direction, even Chris from his carefully positioned spot he was kneeling on the floor. They all had looks that said, what is she talking about, does she even belong here? One of the policemen was even giving Horatio a look that said, I can get her off this crime scene, just say the word. But H's reaction was different than theirs. "What makes you think there was a girl here?" he asked with his head tilted to the side.
"Well I mean..." all the eyes on her, it was a bit difficult to answer so she cleared her throat before continuing. "There's a family picture there," she pointed to a group photo on the wall, a young girl in it grinning through a gap in her teeth, her hair done up in two pigtails with yellow ribbons. She points at a dark spot just under the couch. "There's a ribbon down there, looks like the same kind as in the picture." Everyone bends in unison to look down below the couch where no one had looked before. Sure enough, there sat the piece of ribbon, one lone drop of blood stuck to it.
A smile hovered on Horatio's mouth. "Good. You have an eye for detail."
Chris was confused, "I didn't see that."
The sigh came, H couldn't stop it this time. "That's because you weren't looking for it." He leaned over, taking the evidence bag from Chris. "Out."
Chris blinked a couple of times. "I...what?"
"Outside. Go."
Chris left, not wanting to question Horatio further and grateful to be away from the dead people....starting to rethink his initial career as a medical secretary.
"What's your name?" H asked the coffee girl.
"Jackie, sir. I'm an intern at the crime lab. Though..." she lowered her eyes to look off to the side a bit unhappy. "They said I'd be in observation mode for awhile so someone told me to go on a coffee run for the people here since it was going to be a long case....am I in trouble?" Now she looked worried, had she said something wrong?
But Horatio was smiling as he slipped on his shades and reached to take away the cardboard holder of coffee cups, handing it to the nearest tech carrying stuff. "I think you've done enough observing, time for you to do some real work. Let's find that missing girl."
Jackie smiled.

inspired with much love by lt_horatiocaine