A/N: Hey everyone, I'm a big fan of E/C and felt like doing a fic for them. Anyway I'm still relatively new at writing fics, so please tell me what you think (I'm my own worst critic, so I really won't take offense to anything you tell me). Hope you all enjoy and please please please review!

By the way, for those of you who just started reading, this fic takes place after the season 6 episode Deep freeze.

Disclaimer: I own nothing. CSI: Miami and all of it's characters belong to CBS.

Chapter 1

Calleigh sighed as the doors to the elevator shut behind her. It had been a long day at the forensics lab, which had finally ended when she arrested a 45 year old man for killing his wife to collect $50,000 dollars in insurance money. Despite the fact that she had seen people kill over all kinds of things, both significant and trivial, it never ceased to amaze her that someone could kill another person they claimed to have loved at some point in their life.

It had taken two days for Horatio and her to wrap things up in the case and now she was looking forward to having the weekend off. Luckily Jake also had the weekend off and she felt a growing excitement at the idea of getting to spend some time with him. She hadn't really seen him over the past couple of days due to the new rules concerning the "fraternization of coworkers."

She still believed that she and Jake should be able to work together because they made a good team, but she admitted, with some degree of resignation, that part of her job description was to follow the orders of her superiors. And in this particular case that meant that she couldn't work with Jake, but still she found some comfort in the fact that no one had made her choose between her job and Jake because she knew that her choice would have led to the downfall of yet another relationship.

Now she just had to go file the last of the paperwork and then she would be done for the day. As she walked out of the elevator and began heading towards one of the labs she found herself ruminating on the events that had ultimately led to her and Jake almost breaking up.

She had to admit that she was still angry at Eric for telling Stetler about their relationship. She knew that he hadn't meant to hurt anyone or cause any problems, but somehow that didn't seem to lessen her anger. As she flashed back to her confrontation with him, she felt even more residual anger bubble to the surface.

Calleigh got into the Hummer and waited for Eric to get in before taking off to the crime scene, despite the fact that she felt like leaving him and letting him try to find a way to get there by himself.

God, she was so angry with him. She didn't know what to think and couldn't even begin to comprehend why he would have told Stetler that she was with Jake. Admittedly she did realize that Eric wasn't the type of person who would have shared the relationship out of some childish desire to get back at her just because he was jealous, but she still couldn't understand what would have possessed him to talk about it with Stetler of all people.

She looked over and saw that Eric seemed to have shrunk back into the seat a little and that he had realized that talking to her about it before she brought it up would be a bad idea. She decided to try to cool down before talking to him, but as they turned a curve on the highway, they saw that cars were stopped as far as the eye could see.

A couple minutes after pulling up behind a red Toyota Camry, Calleigh, who didn't want to wait for a news report on the radio, turned on the police scanner and asked for information about how long they would be stuck.

"CSI Duquesne to Miami Central 12."

"Go ahead, CSI Duquesne."

"We were on route to a crime scene, traveling north on Interstate 95 and we are now at a complete standstill. Can you provide us with any information about how long of a wait we can expect?"

"A gasoline tanker overturned about a mile from your current location. They just sent out a call for a clean up crew, so it should be about another 2 hours."

"Alright, thank you dispatch."

Calleigh turned down the volume on the scanner and muttered "crap" under her breath. Of all the days for an accident to occur in an area where there was no way for them to turn around or get off on an exit, it had to be this day.

She quickly looked around to find any possible way of getting off the road, but her hopes were shattered when she realized that they were in one of the middle lanes and even if she could somehow get to one of the side lanes there was a concrete median that would prevent them from turning back and heading the other way on the interstate. And on top of all that the next nearest exit was 2 miles up ahead, past the overturned tanker.

Eric didn't look very happy about their situation either and after a few more minutes of silence he couldn't remain quiet any longer.

"Are we really going to do this for two more hours Calleigh?"

"Do what?"

"Sit here in silence and pretend like nothing's wrong or that there's nothing that we need to talk about."

"I don't know Eric. I mean do you know how angry I am with you right now? You betrayed my trust, my confidence and for what? Because you're jealous?"

Eric started to get a little angry; she should know that he would never intentionally betray her trust.

"Look it wasn't out of jealousy. I tried to tell you before, but you wouldn't listen. Natalia dislocated her shoulder and I popped it back in for her. She was in a lot of pain and I held her for a second to make sure that she was steady. Then Stetler walked in and I guess he made the wrong assumption that Natalia and I were sleeping together again. I…"

Eric tried to continue, but Calleigh was too angry to let him continue, "So, what, you decided to use me as a scapegoat because you've had improper relationships in the lab and didn't want any questions directed at you?"

"No! Damn it, Calleigh. There was nothing romantic going on between Natalia and I, so I assumed that Stetler must be talking about you two because you're the only two people that I know of that work together that are seeing each other romantically."

"You really put me in a bad place Eric."

After a couple of minutes of silence she continued, " I think it's time that you realize that you and I aren't together and aren't going to be together. You need stop focusing on Jake and me."

Eric was visibly angered further by her statement and got out of the car. Calleigh initially thought he was just getting some air, but when she saw him walking the other direction on the highway she got out of the car to ask him what he was doing.

"Just doing what you asked. I'm trying not to focus on you and I figured that will be easier if I don't have to sit in the car with you for the next two hours. I'm just going to walk back to the nearest exit and I'll have H come pick me up. I guess I'll see you at the crime scene, but I don't really know."

Calleigh was still reeling from the fight and didn't protest. As she climbed back into the car, she let herself sink into the seat and think about what just happened.

She knew that she had been looking to pick a fight with Eric that day, in part because Jake had told her that they needed to let things cool down, and that she had been irrational, but she couldn't let go of her anger. She couldn't believe that he had been so childish.

Though she tried to convince herself that his behavior that day was what was still bothering her, she had to acknowledge the real reason she was still angry though was because Eric had been avoiding her all week since the fight. As much as she didn't like fighting with him, she hated the fact that they hadn't been talking even more.

"Oh, well. I guess I'll deal with it later," she muttered under her breath.

As she sat down at one of the desks to review the paper work one last time, she tried to boost her mood by reminding herself that she and Jake were back together. A day after Jake had broke things off he came to her and told her he realized that he had been an idiot and asked her to forgive him. She had gladly obliged and now things seemed to be smooth sailing.

With that thought she quickly realized she was letting her thoughts distract her from doing her work and after a few minutes she got through filling out all the papers. She realized though that there was one minor problem, which was that Eric had helped with some of the lab work and she now had to have him sign off on one of the reports.

"I guess this is as good a time as any to deal with the awkwardness between us" she thought and headed off to try to find him after being unable to reach him on his cell.

She looked in a couple of labs and as she was coming out of one door she ran into Frank.

"Hey Frank. What are you doing here?"

"Oh, just following through on a case. You looked like you were looking for something, anything I can do to help?"

"Not really. I'm looking for Eric to sign off on some stuff, but if you see him please tell him I'm looking for him."

"Will do Calleigh. Take care."

As Frank walked off she realized that she hadn't searched the morgue and after having no luck there, she decided to just put off trying to get his signature until Monday. But as she was walking back to the lab to file the paper, she heard his laugh come from near the information desk.

As she turned the corner she saw him with a striking brunette, which for some reason stopped her from getting any closer. The girl was 5' 9" and looked like a size two, exactly the type of girl most guys drool over, which for some reason made her uncomfortable.

She found herself trying to hear what they were saying and felt a twinge when the girl reached out and touched Eric on the arm, obviously flirting. She then said something that elicited a smile from him and then kissed him lightly on the mouth.

Eric looked a little surprised by the kiss, but Calleigh couldn't bear to watch any more. She suddenly felt very confused and almost sick to her stomach.

"I can't be jealous" she thought "I'm with Jake and we're happy. Why would I be jealous?"

She hurriedly put away the paper and tried to get out of labs, while trying to ignore what she was feeling and thinking. She was almost out of the labs, when as fate would have it she heard Eric calling her name from behind her.

"Hey Calleigh, wait up. Frank told me you were looking for me."

She had forgotten about Frank and suddenly wished she could go back in time and change it so that she hadn't said anything.

"Uh yeah, I was looking for you to sign off on some stuff, but I already put it away so we can just do it Monday."

Eric noticed that she seemed a little stilted and said, "That's fine. Look Calleigh, I just wanted to say that I'm sorry for my part in our fight and how I've been acting this week. We're good friends and I should have realized that our friendship is more important than my pride. We good?"

"Yeah."

When he didn't get any further response from her he said, "You okay Calleigh? You look a little frazzled."

"Sorry, just been a long day. But you're right, our friendship should come first and I'm sorry for the way I reacted too."

After a pause she said, "I gotta go deal with some things, but see you Monday?"

"Yeah, yeah. Have a good weekend."

As they took off in different directions they both looked back at each other and as they made contact Calleigh couldn't help but wonder what was going on with her and where it would lead.