Title: Family Tales
Series: sequel to Family Ties
Author: Swift tales
Fandom: CSI: Miami
Category: AU, Romance, Family, Angst
Pairing: Eric/Ryan (a little Horatio/OFC)
Rating: PG
Warnings: none
Spoilers: Everything before and during Curse of the Coffin
Disclaimer: I obviously don't own
Summary: Ryan meets the members of swing shift



Chapter 11

Ryan stared at the new name tag on his locker.

Ryan Caine.

The letters looked strange and foreign to him. He raised a hand and traced the simple black letters on the white piece of carton. Life was strange, Ryan decided, especially his. He opened his locker and pulled out his gun and his badge, clipping them unto his belt. He was just riffling through some of his stuff when the door to the locker room opened.

“Hey.”

Ryan turned around and smiled at Eric, who was heading towards his own locker, not too far from Ryan.

“Hey.” Ryan said. “How was your shift?”

Eric smiled. “It was good, I’m exhausted though. I had to go diving into three different marinas today to look for a gun, only to find the gun stashed underneath the bed in our suspect’s home.”

Ryan grimaced. “That’s rough man, you have my sympathies.”

Eric laughed, closed his locker and walked towards Ryan. “And how are you doing? Nervous about your first shift on swing shift?”

Ryan shrugged. “Not more nervous then my first day in day shift.”

Eric raised an eyebrow, questioningly and a smirk threatened to break out over his face. Ryan grimaced and looked at the ground, an embarrassed flush was creeping over his cheeks. He cleared his throat and turned back to his locker, messing around in it and pretending that he was looking for something.

Eric grinned. “I guess that would be pretty nervous then.” He teased.

Ryan emerged from his locker and closed the door, glaring at Eric. “I wasn’t nervous and I’m not nervous now.” He straightened out a few wrinkles in his shirt.

Eric rolled his eyes and rested his hands on Ryan’s shoulders. “You’re going to be great. They’re going to love you. Though not too much or I’ll have to play the menacing boyfriend and warn them to back of.”

Ryan laughed and shook his head and Eric could feel the tense muscles underneath Ryan’s shirt relaxing slightly.

“Don’t worry Ryan, you’ll be fine. You’ve met with Walters before, right?”

Ryan shrugged. “That was only a half an hour interview because he wanted to be sure I was qualified. And I haven’t really talked to any of my co-workers yet. I mean, I’ve run into them at the lab of course. You know, I’m going out, they’re coming in, stuff like that. But no real conversations.”

Eric nodded. “Yeah, I know.”

Ryan grinned and closed his locker. “But you’re right, I’ll be fine. How was the guy replacing me?”

Eric shrugged. “His name is Mitchell Manning. He was alright. He seems like a good guy. We didn’t talk for very long though. Horatio put him on a case with Calleigh to see how he’s doing. But from what Calleigh said he’s a competent CSI and he’ll be fitting right in. Apparently, Valera was flirting with him from the moment she met him. The guy’s married though.”

Ryan smiled. “Good. The easier the transition goes the better, for all of us.”

Eric nodded in agreement. “I suppose you’re right. But…I missed you.” There was a blush on the Cuban’s cheek. “I mean, it was strange not having you there to bounce ideas of. It’s a bit strange too to realize that you won’t be coming back. It’s not… sick leave or anything.”

Ryan nodded. “I know, but this is for the best.”

“I know.”

“Well, I should get going, I don’t want to be late or anything. There’s a team meeting in the break room and I really need to be there.”

“Right.” Eric said and quickly pecked Ryan on the mouth. “Call me after your shift is done?”

Ryan smiled. “I’ll call you.”

He left the locker room and made his way to the break room. He walked past Natalia in the hallway and she gave him a thin-lipped smile. Rumours said that Natalia and Calleigh had gotten into an argument in the lab when Natalia had accused Ryan of getting his job only because he was Horatio’s son. Ryan didn’t always put much stock in rumours, but when he’d talked to Calleigh about it, she hadn’t denied or confirmed it. Combined with the fact that Natalia had been acting rather coolly towards him lately, Ryan was compelled to believe the rumours.

Ryan tried to not let it get to him, but it was difficult. He knew that there would be people who’d think he’d been favoured and protected just because of whose son he was. But at the same time he’d hoped, thought, that the people who’d known him, who he’d considered to be his friends would believe in him. And while he and Natalia had had a rocky start, they’d become friends. He wondered just how easy it was to believe that Ryan had only gotten his job because of who his father was.

He opened the door to the break room and was immediately approached by a brown-haired woman with blue eyes and a wide grin. “Hey! You must be Ryan Wol… I mean, Ryan Caine. Nice to meet you.”

She held out her hand and Ryan shook it, dimly wondering if everyone had heard about him and Horatio by now. They probably had, he reflected, rumours like that had a tendency to spread quickly.

“I’m Amanda Hunting.” Her grin widened, if that was possible.

“Hey, I’m… Ryan.” He felt incredibly stupid saying it, because she knew who he was.

She laughed, but it wasn’t a mocking laugh. “Yeah, I know. Come on, meet the others.”

She grabbed his arm and dragged him towards the other two people sitting at the table, cups of coffee in front of them.

In the following half an hour Ryan was officially introduced to Mara Crown and Kevin Daily. They were the members of the swing shift team and seemed to have no problem welcoming Ryan into their fold. Mara was a young woman, who’d only joined the team recently herself and was a newby in law-enforcement. Kevin was a more experienced CSI who’d worked at the lab for quite a long time. He’d been up for promotion but turned it down, causing Walters to become head of swing shift.

“It’s nice to meet you Ryan. Mitchell had been talking about trying to get a transfer into day shift for a while now. He’s starting a family you know and his wife wants him to work more normal hours so he can help out with the kids and stuff.” Kevin confided, his large hand wrapped around his coffee mug.

Ryan smiled in response. “Sounds sensible.”

Amanda laughed, she did that a lot Ryan noticed. “Yeah, it does, doesn’t it? He was quite eager to take the day shift position as soon as Walters said that you were looking for a place in swing shift.”

Mara nodded and turned to Ryan. “So why did you decide to come to swing shift? I mean, a lot of people favour day shift over swing shift.”

Ryan shrugged. “It was a solution to a problem. I mean, I had to leave day shift. So I could choose between changing labs, or shifts. I didn’t want to leave the lab so I chose swing shift above graveyard.”

Mara nodded. “So are the rumours true then?”

“Mara!” Amanda admonished, but Ryan could tell that she didn’t mean it. The grin on her face gave her away.

Ryan shrugged. “Depends on what you heard. But yes, I switched to swing shift because I recently found out who my father was and because I’m seeing someone on day shift.”

Amanda pouted. “And that’s all we’re getting from you, isn’t it?”

Kevin sighed. “Cut the guy a break, will you? I doubt day shift put Mitchell on the spot like this.”

Amanda laughed.

The door opened and Walters stepped inside. He looked at the scene in front of him for a minute before waving the white paper slips he was holding in his hands. “Good, you all have met already. That makes things easier. If everything works out Ryan Caine here will become a permanent fixture on swing shift. And so far I have no reason to believe that he isn’t here to stay.”

“Alright, Daily, I want you on a robber’s case in the Keys. Hunting, I want you to work on a double homicide. Crown, you go with Hunting and keep an eye out for dispatch, I want you to take an easier case you can handle solo when you’re done. Caine, I trust that you know what you’re doing, I want you to check out a suspected arson along with a probable murder, there was a body found after the fire was put out. I’ll go with you on that one. Alright everyone, hop to it.”

Amanda sighed, looked over the paper and took off, Mara trailing behind her. Kevin finished his cup of coffee before calmly making his way to the door. As he passed Ryan, he clapped the younger man heartily on the back. “Welcome to swing shift.”

To Be Continued….