Snow Day

Eric rolled over as his cell rang next to the bed. Groaning, he lifted it and squinted at the caller ID. Paulnitsky. "Delko."

"Sorry to wake you so early, Eric, but I think both you and Calleigh need to get up and look out the window right now," Lt. Roland Paulnitsky, head of the Chicago Police Department's Crime Lab said. There was definite amusement in his voice.

"I'll see if she's up," Eric said. He got up and opened the door of the bedroom. Calleigh's door was still shut. "She's still sleeping."

"Wake her up. She needs to see this."

Rolling his eyes, Eric padded silently across the carpet of their extended stay hotel suite and knocked softly on her door. "Cal, Roland is on the phone. You gotta get up." He returned his attention back to the Lt. "If she shoots me through the door, don't push for the chair, ok?"

His only answer was a snort of laughter.

Calleigh opened her door and stepped out. She rubbed her eyes and ran a hand through her already mussed hair, making a few locks stand up at a comical angle before the weight of her hair brought them down to a more respectable position. "It's 6:30 am and we don't need to be in until 10. He had better have our serial killer being surrounded by S.W.A.T. or bubble wrapped for transport back to Miami to be calling right now."

The laughter on the other end of the phone escalated. "Grouchy," Paulnitsky snorted between gales of laughter. The Miami CSI's (or E.T.'s as they were called in Chicago) amused him to no end.

Native born and bred Southerners, they had never seen an actual winter. Winter for them was an increase in the senior population and a drop in temperatures no lower than 60 degrees at night. He had nearly died laughing at their expressions of shock when the temperatures dropped to the single digits and the wind chill dropped it to -23 just 48 hours ago. To their credit, they did their best to adapt and he had to give them serious points for the effort.

Eric eyed Calleigh cautiously. "Uhm, Roland, if you could see Calleigh's expression right now, you'd stop laughing. What did you want us to do?"

Roland managed to calm down enough to say, "Go to the window, open your curtains and look outside. You're gonna get a big surprise."

"What did he say?" Calleigh asked, heading into the small galley style kitchen. She poured herself a cup of coffee and stuck it in the microwave.

"He wants us to look out the window. He says there's a big surprise outside."

She shrugged and walked with him to the window. She took the draw cord and pulled. They squinted in the brightening light and then almost simultaneously their eyes widened. There was a good foot of snow covering everything. The bare tree limbs looked like someone had frosted them overnight. The snow turned the entire parking lot and everything in it to a fluffy white blanket.

"It's...and...what the..." Eric spluttered.

Laughter rang out from the cell phone. Calleigh grabbed it. "Roland, what's so funny? You don't seriously believe that Eric or I know how to walk in that stuff, let alone drive in it? Are you sending someone out?"

"Nope. Don't sound so distressed, Calleigh-"

"Don't SOUND distressed? I AM distressed! Lieutenant Paulnitsky, if you think either one of us is going to be safe driving the car-I can't even find the car-" Calleigh began hotly.

"Calm down," Roland said, realizing his little joke had gone on long enough. "You two have been working non-stop on finding your serial killer since you got here a week ago. Neither of you have taken a single day off. Do you know what a Snow Day is?"

"No, I'm from Louisiana. We don't get snow. We get rain. We get Rain Days so that you can help sandbag your community when the Mississippi backs up and sends everything down river to your neighborhood," Calleigh said irritatedly. "Eric had Hurricane Days. What's the point in this?"

"Take a Snow Day; the both of you. Go out, stay in, make a snowman, play in the snow, whatever. I'm telling you to take the day off. Come in tomorrow when the salt trucks and plows have done their magic. Maybe by then you can find your car," Roland said. "I'll see you tomorrow."

Calleigh put the phone down and looked over at Eric. "We have a Snow Day."

Eric turned away from the window. "What's a Snow Day? What did Roland say we should do?"

"Play in the snow."