Witnesses

Lina watched her little sister as they came out of the movies. "You okay?" She'd felt her sister's nails in her arm during the two and a half hour movie more times than she could count, which surprised her seeing as she'd read the book beforehand.

"Scary. The book was not scary."

"Sometimes things are more vivid if we see them instead of just hearing about them, reading about them." Lina admitted.

"I want to go home."

"Your mom and Dad aren't home yet. Do you want to go back to..." She paused, looking across the street. She wasn't sure what at first, but something just struck her as wrong.

"Lina, what's that?" Kaya pointed across the road to a group of people.

"I don't know, honey. Get in the car." She recognized the baggie being passed between the two.

Kaya climbed in the car but kept watching out the window.

Lina cried out when she saw the kid that didn't look much older than Kaya fall on the street, dead.

"Lina? What just happened?"

Lina got in the car and took off, not thinking, driving to the lab on autopilot, just trying to get Kaya out before all hell broke loose.

Kaya was scared. She closed her eyes as Lina sped through the streets. "Can we go to Daddy now?"

"Yeah, we're going to the lab, baby." Lina tried to smile for her, trying to calm her own racing heart. It scared her when Kaya didn't say 'I'm not a baby'.

"Thank you."

Kaya almost jumped from the car when Lina parked outside the lab. She ran to the doors and into the lab, looking for her dad.

Calleigh looked worried at the stricken look on Lina's face and the terrified one on Kaya's. "His office. Nat too." Lina thanked her briefly and ran with Kaya to the safety of their dad's office, of their family.

"Daddy!" Kaya called out. "Mommy!"

Natalia made room for Kaya beside her, holding her, rubbing her back, stroking through her hair, doing anything she could to comfort her.

"What happened, Lina?" asked Horatio worriedly.

She told him everything, from start to finish, leaving nothing out.

Kaya looked at her parents. "Does that mean they killed that boy?"

Natalia's eyes connected with Horatio's before kissing their daughter's head. "Yes, baby. It does." She couldn't see lying to her, especially when Kaya would find out eventually anyway.

"I know I shouldn't have left the scene, Dad, but all I could think about was getting Kaya, getting us, someplace safe." She always knew her dad, her family, was safe.

"That's all right Lina. You reported it to law enforcement. You didn't go home. Stay here, I'll get Ryan to take your statement. Nat, what do you want to do about Kay's statement?"

"Can it wait a little bit?" She asked, worried about both of her daughters.

"Dad, can't I talk to Eric? Or Calleigh?" Lina asked.

"Of course, Nat. Why, honey?" Horatio looked at Lina in surprise.

She looked at Kaya and just couldn't put her sister through anymore that night, couldn't tell her the truth, that she and Ryan had broken up the night her dad and Natalia been hurt.

"You can talk to Calleigh then. Kay, stay with your sister and Calleigh until we get back."

Natalia kissed Kaya's head. "I'll be right back, baby, and you're safe with Lina and Calleigh. You know that, right? You can call me if you need me."

Kaya nodded. She moved back to Lina and cuddled her. Lina took Natalia's place on the couch and held her sister, rubbing her back and whispering to her as their parents left. "I'm scared."

"I know you are, baby."

"When can we go home?"

"Soon, honey. I have to talk to Calleigh first, but Dad and your mom might be tied up for awhile."

"Can we call Ryan?"

"If you want, you can call Ryan."

"You don't want him?"

"I didn't say that, sweetheart."

"You sound angry when Ryan is mentioned. Why?"

"I'm not angry, baby. It's just...Things get complicated when you're grownups."

"You broke up."

She nodded. "Yeah, Kaya. We did."

"Why?" She looked like she was going to cry.

"It's complicated. It doesn't mean that he can't be your big brother still."

"I want you to be happy. And I want to go home. Can we go to see Mari?"

"We'll have to ask Calleigh when she gets here."

Kaya nodded and buried her head in Lina's chest. "This won't be real soon, right?"

"I don't know." She assumed that Calleigh would have already been there.

Calleigh walked in as they were talking and Kaya got up to hug her.

"Hey," Calleigh told her softly, hugging her niece.

"I want to go home."

"Soon. I need to talk to Lina first."

"Why?"

"Because I need to know what you saw so I can help the boy's parents."

"He's dead..."

Calleigh nodded. "But his mom and dad need to know why. That's what your parents, Uncle Eric, Ryan and I all do, and Lina to some extent. We help tell the family why."

"I saw too."

"I know, but your mom wasn't sure you wanted to talk about it right now."

"I want to help."

"Are you sure, sweetheart?" Lina asked her sister.

Kaya nodded. Lina let Kaya talk first.

"He passed them something and then I asked Lina what happened but she said to get in the car and then he fell and Lina screamed."

"The something looked like a bag of drugs, but I couldn't see how much. It was definitely a white substance of some kind." Lina described the shooter perfectly.

"And the kid had something else in his hand," said Kaya.

Lina turned her attention to her sister. "What?"

"I don't know what it was. It was big cause it was poking out."

'Gun', Lina mouthed at Calleigh over Kaya's head, holding her sister a little closer.

"Kay, was it grey?"

"Black." Kaya said, moving closer to her sister.

"Odd shape?"

She nodded. "And it made a noise. Like a click then a clap. Only louder." She added after thinking.