Callica remains one of my favourite pairings, and although I'm still in the process of transferring and completing my older stories 'Med School Chemistry' and 'Life's A Game We're Still Learning How To Play' from Livejournal to here, I found this lurking about in my documents and decided to brush it up and post it in the mean time.

As usual, any comments – good, bad or somewhere in between – are welcome!

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"Who the fuck are you?"

The blonde turned to the loud voice that broke her silence. "I could ask you the same thing," she said, carefully removing her hands from the dial of the safe and standing, taking in the man before her. For the moment, she pretended to ignore the attractive younger woman behind him.

"I'm on a job, you're interrupting," came the cold tone.

Erica chuckled. "I think you'll find you're the one interrupting." She gestured to the safe, currently with two of the four digit combination scrawled on the front. She was pleased to note the look of surprise which crossed his features. "Look, unless your little tag along there is the one you brought to open the safe, we're for different reasons."

"This is my job," came the cold tone once more.

"Oh, and I suppose you had it all planned out? You're going to tell me you had the place all staked out for days?" She could tell by the snarl that left his lips she was right. "Well, some team you have," she smirked. "They didn't tell you I'd be here, did they?"

The man stepped forward, but stopped when the young woman behind him caught his arm.

"Nice to see someone in your team has some sense," smiled Erica, meeting the gaze of the beautiful woman behind him.

"Get out of here," snarled the older man.

"I'll leave when I'm finished," said Erica coldly, returning to settle next to the safe once more. "Now if you don't mind I'd like a little bit of quiet for this." Laying an ear against the door of the safe and one hand on the dial, she was about to start carefully turning the dial once more when the soft rustling of material caught her attention. With her free hand she automatically drew her gun from where it was tucked into the waistband of her pants, pointing it in the direction of the noise. "I wouldn't," she said, turning her head to face the man currently with his gun partially removed from its shoulder holster under his jacket. She finally took in his appearance more closely, her gaze glancing back at the woman behind him, quickly noting the similarities; family. Taking a calculated risk, she shifted her aim slightly to the woman. "Because it won't be you I shoot if you try and squeeze that trigger at me. And I don't think that's how you want to find out how good a shot I am."

With another snarl, the man shoved his gun back in his holster.

Erica smiled. "Good move. Now, can't we all just get along?" she drawled, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "You do what you came here to do, I'll do what I came here to do and this sucker comes home to a rather empty apartment." Settling back to the safe, she didn't resume her delicate work until she caught sight of the man moving towards the paintings hanging on the wall. She raised an eyebrow. She wouldn't have taken him for an art thief, or someone to appreciate its value, but clearly he did. She had flirted with the notion of taking the art herself, but had decided against it; both due to the bulk and the fact it quite simply wasn't her taste, and wasn't something she wished to have hanging around until such times as it was safe enough to move on.

Turning her attention back to the safe, she was aware of a set of eyes watching her. Knowing the nameless man was busy, she knew it could only be the attractive young woman. She smirked, rather enjoying the attention, but knowing that now was not the time to be indulging too much. She had a job to do.

A few minutes later she grinned at the satisfying clunk of the safe door opening. Sitting back, she pulled open the door, pleased with what she saw inside. Quickly removing the money and stowing it in the bag brought with her for that purpose, she sifted through the other contents. Mainly jewellery which was also stowed in her bag. Opening one box, however, she paused. It was an orchid cast in gold with diamonds inlaid into the design on a gold choker. A beautiful piece. Smirking, she set the item aside and she looted the rest of the contents. Carefully closing the safe and dusting it down to remove prints and the numbers scrawled in white board marker on the front, she picked up her bag and stood. Glancing towards the man who was still busy removing the art from its frames, she crossed the room on silent feet to stand before the young woman. On closer inspection it was easy to see she was the man's daughter. Dressed all in black, a simple but fitted ensemble, Erica could see and appreciate her wonderful figure. Smiling, she slowly raised her hands to gently move the woman's hair aside and carefully fit the choker. "There, beautiful," she whispered, hearing the hitch in the other woman's breathing.

"Calliope step away from that woman," came her father's voice.

Calliope? Interesting name. Smirking, she turned to face the fuming father. "What? Something wrong with giving a beautiful girl beautiful things?" She chuckled, shaking her head as the man only became angrier. "I'll leave you to your work," she informed him in a bored tone, flashing one final smile to the blushing woman before slipping out the room the way she had come in; on a climbing rope leading down to the alley between this building and the next.

Later that night, Callie sat in bed, the gold choker held gently between her fingers. The blonde had been right; it was a beautiful piece. Worth a pretty penny. She smiled at the memory of those delicate fingers fixing it around her neck. Her heart had been hammering in her chest, but not from fear...