Disclaimer: I wish I owned CSI: Miami so I could bring Eric back, but that is not the case.

Nocuous

Chapter 1: Step One

When Horatio arrived at work that morning to find Eric waiting for him, he nodded slightly to himself. He'd been expecting this.

Eric turned to him, looking uncertain, a little contrite. "Hey H."

"Eric."

He looked down at his hands, toying with his visitor badge. He opened his mouth to say something, but Horatio preempted him.

"Let's talk in private."

They went inside his office and Eric took the proffered chair. After a moment, he said what he suspected Horatio already knew. "I want to come back."

Horatio waited for him to say more.

"I thought I was ready to leave, but the longer I was away...I just...I'm a CSI; that's who I am."

"You've thought about this?"

"Yeah. A lot."

"Eric," he said slowly, "I respected your reasons for leaving. Are you sure you're ready to come back?"

He looked down at the desk, then back into Horatio's eyes. "I need to come back."

"Are you sure you're coming back for the right reasons?"

Eric blinked quizzically. He'd been sure Horatio would welcome him back enthusiastically. He was becoming worried. "What are the wrong reasons?"

"You haven't been seeing Calleigh since you left, have you?"

"That's not what this is about," he said almost too quickly. "I want to come back for me. I'm a good CSI, H."

"You would have to re-certify with firearms and crime scene procedure before you can do fieldwork."

"I know. I just want the chance."

Horatio nodded and stood. "I will let you know."

"So they're sure this was arson?" Natalia wondered.

"The fire had to have an accelerant to burn as fast and hot as it did. Probably gasoline, but we'll have to run it through gas chromatography to know for sure," Calleigh answered. "The fire started in the middle of the night, no witnesses, and the firefighters didn't find any bodies."

"Could be an insurance scam."

"Well that's the thing: this house wasn't insured. It's listed as the property of a real-estate firm that no one's been able to get a hold of."

"Then what's the working theory? Pyromaniac?"

"Don't know." She sounded almost excited about the mystery. "That's what we have to figure out."

"It's going to take forever to sort through this rubble," Natalia remarked, snapping a photograph of a broken television set before moving it to get to the charred wood below.

Calleigh's phone rang. A glance at her caller ID told her it was Horatio. "Duquesne," she answered.

"Something has come across my desk that I want to run by you."

"What is it?"

"Eric has requested reinstatement."

"Well that's great. What's the problem?"

"Calleigh, I couldn't run the lab without you, and considering your history with Eric, I wanted to make sure this wouldn't cause any problems."

"I appreciate that you value my opinion, Horatio. And my opinion is this: Eric's a great CSI. If he's willing to come back, I say the sooner the better. We can really use him, and the lab's not the same without him."

"Thank you. I'll see you back at the lab."

Natalia watched her with interest as she put away her phone. "Eric's coming back?"

Calleigh smiled brightly. "Yeah."

They went back to work sorting through the debris.

"Looks like someone was definitely living here," Natalia said, putting scorched junk food wrappers in an evidence bag.

Calleigh started to get the feeling that not all of the damage was caused by the fire. She didn't share her suspicion with Natalia yet, not wanting to bias her analysis, but it didn't take long for Natalia to notice the same discrepancies. "Hey Calleigh, does this look like a tool mark to you?" She pointed to a gash in a small file cabinet.

Calleigh knelt down to examine it. "That looks like it was caused by a crowbar, like someone forced it open. I'm finding the same kind of evidence in the bedroom and the kitchen. Someone searched this place before burning it down."

"If only we knew what they were looking for."

"And if they found it."

As soon as the paperwork was done Eric was right back to work, lifting fingerprints from various open investigations and running them through AFIS.

Natalia entered carrying a box full of evidence bags. "So the rumor's true," she said. "Eric Delko is back at CSI."

"Yep. And just in time, it looks like. What's all this?"

"We're investigating an arson. This house was obviously ransacked before someone doused it in gasoline and burned it down. We didn't find any body, and no one knows who was living there. This is everything we could find that might possibly have fingerprints on it: food from the fridge, bottles from the medicine cabinet in the bathroom, silverware from the kitchen, stuff like that. If whoever was living there is in the system, it would be a huge lead." She set the box on the table. "Welcome back."

He laughed. "Thanks. I'll get right on it."

It was getting close to quitting time when someone knocked softly at the edge of the open door. He looked up and caught his breath. It was Calleigh. She looked tired, and the faint scent of smoke clung to her.

"Hey."

He smiled. "Hey."

"I heard you were back."

"Just lab work for now," he said. "I won't be back in the field for a few weeks, at least."

"Still..." She wasn't sure what she meant to say next. She wondered if he could hear how loud her heart was beating. When he left the lab, a part of her had been convinced she was the reason. It was hard to blame him: she nearly killed him in the shoot-out at the armory, which wasn't something a lot of relationships could survive. She'd been hoping that he would forgive her and they could put that behind them. But then he left the lab and made no effort to keep in touch with her. She'd heard from Horatio that Eric had gone to Puerto Rico. She only found out he was back in Miami when he showed up as an expert witness for a defense lawyer.

She could take a hint.

But now he was back. What did that mean? That he wanted to give her another chance, protocols be damned? Or that he'd really moved on, and the department protocols were no longer a concern?

Either way, she didn't want to seem too solicitous. "I'll see you around," she said pleasantly.

"Calleigh," Eric said suddenly. But when she turned back to him, he didn't know what to say. In spite of what he told Horatio, being able to work with her was one of the reasons he wanted to come back. But how could he tell her that? How could he tell her that he couldn't stand being away from her? A long moment passed when he could only look at her. "It's good to be back."

She smiled softly. "It's good to have you back."