"You told on me! I don't believe you did that, how could you! And you used my words against me as if I was someone you just use and then throw away!
You know very well I explained to you that Natalia would never kill anyone, and that she's been very restrained ever since Nick came around!"
He sighed, the formidable woman in front of him, his ex, was furious with him, and he did admit that she was right, at least in part. He sighed and said:
"Calleigh, if you'd just like to calm down and listen to me, and I'm sure that….."
"Listen to you! I did that yesterday, and this morning Natalia is walking around looking scared and not talking to anyone! I asked H what was going on, and apparently you've used Eric's and mine statements against all of us! Now Nat thinks I've betrayed her after all she's been through, you low life! How I could have been in love with you, I don't know!"
And with that, the petite blond stomped out of his office. Jake felt completely drained. Great. He'd totally screwed up his first IAB case, Horatio was keeping an eye on him, and Calleigh was really mad this time, he could tell.
He smiled to himself. She'd come around, she always did. If worst came to play, he'd buy her a present, or flowers or something. She loved that kind of stuff. Just let her cool off for a couple of days. Snort. Besides, he already had two new, albeit less important IAB cases to follow. He was enjoying this job.
Meantime, Calleigh slowly cooled off while walking down the stairs to the lab. She'd taken the stairs on purpose, hoping not to run into anyone, but as she neared the last staircase to the lab, she saw Eric sitting there, his head in his hands.
"Hey, Eric, baby?" she said softly, "You ok?"
Eric looked up and shook his head.
"I think I've screwed up with Natalia once too many. Today she's hiding either down in DNA, with the door closed, and when she saw he coming, she exited the back door and when to hide in H's office." Eric's eyes where red rimmed, even though he wasn't crying.
Calleigh felt like the weight on her shoulders just became even heavier. Then she made a decision.
"Let's go!", and grabbed Eric's hand, dragging him up and away with her, "We're going to look for Natalia, and if we have to kick down some glass walls on the way!" Eric always found her accent reassuring and followed her gladly.
They arrived at Horatio's office just minutes later, and found it with all the shutters closed.
Calleigh summoned all her courage and put her pride in her pocket, knocking on the door, calling to Horatio:
"H, it's Calleigh and Eric. Can we come in please? We're looking for Natalia, we need to talk!" The last sentence was more of a plea than a request.
Horatio opened the door for them and ushered them into his office, and quickly closed the door.
Natalia was sitting in the chair in front of his desk, eyes all red from crying and quietly blowing her nose. She hadn't looked up yet.
Calleigh burst out:
"Natalia! You know I count you as my friend! Why are you crying alone, honey!" Theoretically speaking, Natalia was crying in Horatio's company, but that's not the same, is it?
Calleigh rushed over Natalia, pulling up a chair in the process, and hugged the other woman.
Calleigh didn't understand all Natalia said between the sobs, but she did make out the gist of the messege.
Natalia was crying because she felt horrible, Nick was dead, and he'd nearly raped Maxine, and for sure everyone thought this was her fault, that she had it coming over the mole business, and that everyone for sure thought she was a bad person, and they had told on her. And Jake had humiliated her to no end, and Maxine had been crying too and….
Here Natalia was out of breath, and Calleigh decided to cut in.
"First of all, both Eric and I explained to Jake that we trust you and that you're not a killer, and that he should valuate all the evidence at hand. He then chose to turn our words against us, and use them against you. I've already told him a piece of my mind, ok honey! Don't be so sad, and don't cry here alone, I wanted nothing else yesterday than to come and see you in the holding area, but they wouldn't let me, please understand?
Calleigh was patting her back, holing the back of her head to her shoulder, trying to calm her down.
Natalia was still crying, but was calmer now.
Suddenly Eric saw something on Horatio's desk that made his blood boil. With two swift steps, he was at H's desk, holding the offending item in his hands:
"Why have you kept this?" He showed Natalia the photo of her and Nick.
She just took it, and held it against her, without answering.
"Eric!", Calleigh said, "Don't be so judgemental. I'll always love my Daddy, now matter what he did when he was drunk! Love is not always easy, you know."
Calleigh knew a bit herself about difficult but ohhhhhhh so interesting boyfriends.
Natalia was resting her head on Calleigh's shoulder and was looking up at Eric.
"Don't be angry with me, Eric, please? I've have enough of anger and fear and lonliness to last me a lifetime, please forgive me." She sounded a bit confused, and Eric's heart just melted. He stepped closer to her to slowly stroke her hair.
What a couple of horrible days it had been. He just hoped next week would be better, because he was slowly starting to feel burnt out. He wondered how Natalia dealt with it all, but he thought she was a very strong woman. Maybe she occasionally made the wrong decisions about her life, but he loved her dearly anyway, a strong friendship love that had slowly come to replace the sexual passion of those first couple of months.
He kissed her forhead.
"Don't' cry anymore. I'll walk you to you're car, and then I'll drive you home, and then you can just sleep for a while, ok? You don't look really fit to work today. Are any of you sisters at home?"
Secretly he hoped they wouldn't be, because if they were, then he wouldn't be able to pamper her like he wanted to.
Calleigh read his mind on this one and grinned up at him, when Natalia shook her head.
Eric grinned broadly.
"Come here, baby, I'll take you home. Calleigh and Horatio can take care of the lab for the day, please?"
Horatio nodded. It was good they were all friends again.
He'd have to have a serious talk with Jake about normal simple respect for another human being.
With that, Horatio shooed everyone out of the office and silently watched Eric and Calleigh accompanying Natalia to her car.