A/N: This is my first story. I'd appreciate opinions but please nothing too harsh. This is an AU HipHuggers oneshot that takes place 5 years after the season 5 finale, although it was written around the time that "Stand Your Ground" aired. Everything from season 6 can be disregarded unless you want to leave certain moments in. The only episode that is actually referenced is "Man Down", so if you haven't seen it yet there are a couple of things you might not understand. Enjoy and let me know how I did.

Disclaimer: CBS, Jerry Bruckheimer, Alliance Atlantis, Anthony Zuiker, etc. own CSI Miami and all its characters. I am not them, therefore I do not own any of it. I own only my idea for this story and any characters you don't recognize.

He always assumed, though he'd never admit it, that his life would take the same path as those of his sisters as he listened to them make up stories of how they would fall in love, get married, and have families.

He always assumed that he would realize when he fell in love and he would be able to tell whether or not she loved him back.

He always assumed that once he found the girl he was destined to spend the rest of his life with, everything else would be smooth sailing.

When he met Calleigh Duquesne he realized that, when it came to her, he would never be able to assume anything.

Eric Delko sat on his couch, the TV on but ignored. He was lost in his thoughts, both good and bad, as he realized he would be in for another sleepless night. He and Calleigh had known each other for a decade and had been together for half of it. They knew each other so well that both knew they wouldn't be able to function normally without the other by their side. That was the reason for Eric's predicament.

He often described Calleigh as strong and steady, unfazed in the face of danger. She was also as stubborn as they came and was very persistent. Her stubborn streak had been rearing its ugly head two weeks prior, which is why she currently found herself in a coma, healing from surgery to remove two bullets from her back and fighting off infection after infection. Eric had visited her earlier that day to watch the doctors remove the bandages that had been applied to her head because of the battle she lost with the pavement after she was hit. The fall had also caused a cracked rib and a sprained ankle, but those were well on the way to being healed.

The officer who had been assisting Calleigh in clearing the scene had been relieved of duty pending an IAB investigation and how well Calleigh healed from her injuries. The doctors had considered her lucky; one bullet had scraped but not punctured her left lung and the other had struck her right shoulder blade. They weren't ready to call her stable because her immune system didn't seem to be working properly, but they had taken her off the critical list once she made it out of surgery. Whether or not she would have full mobility of her arm could only be determined when she woke up, and it frustrated Eric to no end that the doctors couldn't tell him when that would be. His other half was lying helpless in a hospital bed and he could do nothing to help ease her suffering.

The rest of the team had taken it upon themselves to find the shooter once they realized how empty the lab was without Calleigh there. Once the culprit had been identified and hauled in, Eric had heard that Ryan had made sure to steer clear of the interrogation room. Everyone knew that Ryan looked up to Calleigh, as she had taught him everything she knew when he had transferred in from patrol all those years ago, and apparently he hadn't thought he'd be able to keep himself from strangling the man who had nearly killed her. And it seemed as if everyone else had agreed. Horatio had used his most threatening interrogation techniques and the suspect had admitted to shooting Calleigh because he didn't want his business to be inconvenienced by cops and she had looked like the easier target. With that, he had been sent to jail with an attempted murder of a police officer charge under his belt.

Eric was grateful for everything his friends had done, and he knew that the main reason everyone had worked so hard was none of their team had been shot since his own near death experience more than five years earlier. He had long ago admitted to himself that his life would likely be drastically different had that bullet not lodged in his brain, but he knew he wouldn't change anything that had happened in those five years.

A quiet sniffle from behind him brought him out of his musings and he turned around automatically, already knowing where the sound came from. A single look at the little girl standing in the doorway curved his lips into the first real smile he had managed all day. It looked like he wasn't the only one having problems sleeping lately. He opened his arms and without a word she walked over and climbed up onto his lap. He wrapped his arms around her and let one hand wander through her dark brown curls as he waited for her to speak. It was a couple of minutes and another sniffle later before he was finally rewarded with the sound of a little voice.

"Daddy?"

"What is it, princesa?"

Another bout of silence followed. Eric knew that his little girl loved the pet name he had for her, and he also knew that using Spanish with her always helped her relax. Sure enough, the quavering little voice spoke up again.

"I miss Mama."

That simple statement tugged on his heartstrings and he had to fight back a wave of tears. His daughter would only get more upset if she saw him cry. She was almost four years old and was a very inquisitive child. She picked up on the subtle things that adults had an easy time concealing from each other and he had been very careful to keep his emotions in check around her the past couple of weeks. He pressed a kiss to the top of her head and looked down to see her tear filled eyes looking back at him. He gave her a reassuring smile and wiped away a solitary tear that had escaped down her cheek.

"I know, baby. I do too, and you know what? That's okay. But she'll be home soon," he told her soothingly.

He heard another sniffle and tilted his head to see her face better. She was staring at the TV but the faraway look in her eye proved that she was thinking about something. She abruptly turned her head and locked her green eyes, shining with unshed tears, with her father's deep brown ones. He could see the fear and began to rub small circles on her back in hopes of calming her. More tears began tracking down her cheeks as her tiny body shook slightly and she finally released the tormenting question she had kept to herself ever since she found out that her mother had been hurt.

"Is Mama gonna die?"

Eric was shocked. He and Calleigh had tried their hardest to keep their daughter shielded from the dangers that their jobs could yield, but once she was old enough to understand the basics, they had explained to her that there was a possibility of one or both of them not coming home one day. She had taken it surprisingly well, but now that the time had come for her to be faced with that horrific possibility, he knew that she wasn't prepared to lose her mother.

He decided to be as gentle as possible while still being firm in his beliefs that Calleigh would make a full recovery. "Grace Maria Delko, why would you think that? She's one of the toughest people there is and you know that she would never leave you without a fight. She loves you more than anything in this world."

He knew that every single word was true. When they had first found out about Grace, Calleigh had been scared to death and had reluctantly admitted it. Eric had held her and told her that they would face every challenge head on and everything would be just fine. She had sobbed into his chest and he had found himself a bit unnerved by the fact that, of all the things to scare her, it was their child that caused him to finally see her break down. He had shared her fear several months later when their baby girl had been born almost ten weeks early. They had both feared she wouldn't pull through despite the neonatologist's assurances that the odds were in their favor. They had named her Grace to show how special she was and she had proven them right ever since.

Being born so early, she had been very small, and she was still tiny. She was very similar to her mother, both in appearance and personality. While Grace's hair was darker than her mother's and lighter than her father's, her eyes were perfect replicas of Calleigh's, something that Eric had always been over the moon about. The girls also shared the same stubborn streak, as well as the ability to make everyone around them stare as they walked by.

Eric had also noticed over the last year or so that Grace seemed to have picked up on one of Calleigh's nervous habits, nibbling on her lower lip. He normally found it adorable, but when he saw his precious little girl with her lower lip between her teeth and tears dripping onto her pajamas, he just wanted to hold her close and chase away every last drop of sadness in her body. He knew that since she was her mother in miniature, coddling her would not chase her demons away, so he picked her up and decided to put her back in bed. He hoped that all the crying had tired her out and would make it easy for her to go back to sleep.

Grace wrapped her small arms around her father's neck and buried her face into his chest, unable to form a response to her father's question. She had let him know that she was scared and she felt relief when he told her that her mother still loved her even though she was sick. She always felt safe with her parents because she knew that protecting people was their job. She also knew that that job could take her parents away from her and that was what scared her the most about her mother's prolonged absence. It was that thought that prompted a question from the forefront of the three-year-old's mind.

"When's Mama comin' home?" she asked, her voice muffled and sleepy.

Eric smiled sadly and tried not to disturb the tired child as he entered her bedroom and deposited her on her bed. Her arms immediately encased Claro, her beloved sleeping companion, wanting to close the hole her mother's absence had left in her heart. The stuffed alligator had been Calleigh's first gift for her daughter and had been next to Grace while she slept since the day she had come home from the hospital. The little girl's eyes that were so identical to her mother's turned to Eric and he lovingly brushed a stray curl out of her face.

"Soon, mi hija, I promise. We have to make sure she's not sick anymore and she has to wake up so we can make sure nothing else is wrong."

Grace seemed satisfied with the answer and nodded, shifting slightly to get more comfortable. The glow from outside the window bathed the child in pale moonlight and Eric couldn't help but smile as he caught sight of the necklace around his daughter's fragile neck. The cross pendant on the thin chain had belonged to Calleigh and it was in fact the same one that she had put in his hand while he had been unconscious and awaiting surgery to remove the bullet from his head. He had tried to give it back to her afterward but she had insisted that he keep it. Kept it he had, and on Grace's third birthday he had taken it out of its special place in his dresser and put it around her neck, telling her that her mother had given it to him to help him feel better and that he hoped it would do the same for her. She hadn't taken it off once in the six months since. He and Calleigh had agreed that they would raise their daughter with the same Catholic values that Eric had grown up with, but it would be up to her if she decided to follow that path.

Eric could tell that Grace was losing her fight to stay awake, so he pulled her blanket up to her chest and kissed her forehead. Those beautiful green eyes opened one more time and blinked sleepily as Grace struggled to get one more thought out.

"I hope Mama knows how much we miss her."

"I'm sure she does, Grace. Go to sleep. I love you."

"Love you more, Daddy."

As his daughter finally drifted off to sleep, he pulled himself up and left the room. He returned to the living room only to turn off the TV and head to his bedroom. He was not the only one suffering through Calleigh's ordeal. All of their friends missed her and the little girl in the next room was terrified that her mother wouldn't recover. He knew that the coming weeks and months would be difficult for them all, but they would all get through it because they knew that nobody would give up.

He assumed that once he and Calleigh let their hearts lead them, they would never be alone again.

He assumed that after their daughter was born and they knew she would be fine, nothing else would scare them.

He assumed that since their focus on life had shifted since they first met, their jobs wouldn't be as satisfying.

He should have realized by now that with Calleigh Duquesne, he could never assume.